Empty spaces on the dealer map

Now that Penske is officaly out of the smart game, and MB USA is in, what is being done to help out those parts of this country that are left without a dealer. We were promised when those Wonderful independent dealers were shut down that something else would take there place.

I just checked the dealer locator and several parts of the country (entire states) that used to have dealers and still have owners now have no support from MB USA.

If you are one of them check in here.

For myself I have to admit I got a new dealer much closer than my old one, but this is now the only dealer north of the IL line.

Replies to This Discussion

Forest, it's the Fourth of July weekend. Only fools like me are on sUSAi. Anyway, here's one thing DVI, LLC is going to do...There will be five smart part distribution centers instead of just one with smartUSA. That will fix a big gap right there.

IMHO, more MB dealers will be coming down the line. DVI needs to get 'on the ball' and start using a megaphone to let us know the plan. Unfortunatly, corporations do everything slow.

Here in Arizona there is only the dealership in Chandler, AZ. A new MB dealership is being built in Tucson, AZ. Rumer has it that it will include smart, but the sales people at the old site on Speedway Blvd. denigh any knowledge of this being a fact. Guess we wont know untill it opens in August.

WV never had a dealer and something tells me that won't change, unfortunately. We've had at least a couple positive articles in the Charleston paper about the car and we paraded 6 or so cars during a meet into the parking lot of Smith Motorcars (Charleston MB dealer) as a show of support back in 2008. But, the dealer cited the expense of building a dedicated showroom for smart as the deal breaker for them. Of course, given national sales since 2008/2009, they're probably glad they didn't make the investment.

The local owners hold out hope for a closer dealer than Ohio, but I just don't see it happening. smart corporate (both Penske and now MBUSA) appears to be tied to the mentality that only large city dwellers are interested in the car.

There's no good answer to this IMHO. Saddle every M-B USA dealer with carrying the smart (note the comment above about the expenses involved) and if the sales aren't there they'll drop the car. On the other hand, potential buyers are put off by the "no dealer for 200 miles" mantra. Not sure M-B USA will have any better luck at this than Penske did. We still haven't heard for sure if we'll be able to order smart parts from any M-B dealer but that would be an improvement over the PAG process. Right now it appears we'll get the original smart centers tied to M-B dealerships, plus maybe a few more in selected markets. Time will tell.

I wouldn't care if they did the sales as a special order, but all MB dealers should be service points. They draw the oil out of the drain tubes on the MB's now, the parts department is the only place needing added space.

I'd agree, except unless the dealer is already selling smarts they will have never seen a smart before and their service techs would have maybe two weeks of training under their belts. The dealers that don't have a customer base would seldom see a smart IMHO, and those aren't the ones I'd want working on my car. BTW, if the M-B dealers use the vacuum method to change the oil on a smart they'll never inspect the screen on the end of the drain plug - not good. YMMV.

Alan F. Webber Sr. said:

I wouldn't care if they did the sales as a special order, but all MB dealers should be service points. They draw the oil out of the drain tubes on the MB's now, the parts department is the only place needing added space.

I just got this car Friday, a 2008 Passion. My insurance agent has a 2008 and told me no drain plug and filter up at right top of engine. I believed him and didn't look. Thanks for the info, I checked and yes to drainplug and filter on bottom right. Now I wish I hadn't ordered the $50.00 oil drain pump!